Search

Subscribe to Podcast

Become a Patreon!

Love the podcast? Wish you could help support the show? Now you can! Head over to patreon.com/literature to sign up for a monthly subscription. You can give anything from a dollar a month to as much as you’d like. No donations too big or too small – we’ll use them to help with our costs and expenses. Thank you!

143 A Soldier’s Heart – Teaching Literature at the U.S. Military Academy (with Professor Elizabeth Samet)

Since ancient times, societies have used rousing lines of poetry to inspire soldiers to acts of heroism, courage, and sacrifice. But what about literature that expresses doubts about war? Or fear? Or that conveys its brutal nature? Should those works be a part of the curriculum as well?

And what about literature that, on its surface, has nothing to do with the battlefield? Where is the value in that for a soldier?

One thing seems clear: how a society educates its soldiers tells us something fundamental about the values of that society. And when it comes to the role of literature in a soldier’s education, we can learn two things. We see how we as a society think of the men and women fighting for us. And we see a reflection of what we think literature can and should do.